This is sort of a backgrounder for Town Star, including some of my own initial experiences from the game. A separate step-by-step "How to Start" guide can be read here.
Town Star Game - An Introduction
Town Star is the first blockchain-based game from the Gala Gaming network (You can learn more about blockchain gaming here). As of this writing, Town Star is still in private beta and the only way to access the game is from a Gala dashboard available only to its registered members. Don't worry as this is a free-to-play game and registration to become a Gala member is likewise free.
Town Star is quite similar to the then very popular Facebook game Farmville. I noticed that most of Gala's online ads boasts that Town Star is, and I quote, "From some of the creative minds behind" Farmville and Words with Friends, hence the similarity.
I first came across Gala from an online ad with a robot (with gloomy background) and maybe that's why I didn't expect that I will end up playing a sunshiny, "cartoonish" farming game. called Town Star. :)
Anyway, that same ad promised 100 Gala coins to anyone who signs up and plays the game. I signed up, played the Town Star game but did not received any coins immediately afterwards. So I thought maybe it was just a promotion that already ended. But I continued to play the game since I find it very interesting and quite engaging. Then one day I noticed that I already have 100 Gala coins in my account and that it was credited a few days or a week after I first started playing the game.
I did a little research and found out that you only get the 100 Gala coins bonus after playing the game for 3 consecutive days (no matter how long each day). This is to prevent people from abusing the reward system. Also, after sometime, I noticed an item in my used to be empty Gala game inventory. It's a Town Star Beta Key and according to its description - "Owning this key has its privileges." :) Honestly, I can't remember when I got this key, maybe it was given at the same time that I got the 100 bonus Gala coins.
Town Star Game Basics (And Some Tips):
- The game currently have two servers: (1.) The Weekly Competition server that lasts for 5.5 days, and (2.) The Free Play server that lasts about a month. (Note: You can only get rewards when you join/play in the Weekly Competition server.) The admin sometimes add a special server for special games like the Winter Championship last December 2020. (Special games give higher rewards and special tokens.)
- For each game, you start with a few resources. You manage your town, create buildings, plant crops, make your town productive, etc... then after the server/s" time is up, the game resets. Top players in the Weekly Competition server will get Gala coin rewards and a new game/competition will start again after 36 hours. Should you decide to play again, you will start from scratch.
- Each game starts with you choosing a location for your town (i.e. a parcel of land anywhere in the world). To give you an idea, here's a Town Star map guide, a sample of what you will see when you're prompted to choose a location.
- Each square on the map represents a city, an occupied land (i.e. a player's town), a plain, a desert, a forest, a Boxcoin Mine, a mountain, a body of water, and ice.
- You will be prompted to choose a location for your town and you can only choose either: (1) a forest, (2) plains, or (3) a desert. Recommended choice for a beginner is the forest because it has a lot of natural resources like trees and ponds. Below are screenshots of what a typical forest, plains, and desert towns look like:
A FOREST TOWN - RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS
A PLAINS TOWN - BEST FOR ANIMAL FARMING - LOTS OF PASTURES
A DESERT TOWN - A DIFFICULT TOWN TO START - FOR EXPERT PLAYERS
- Also, when choosing a location - It is best to choose a parcel of land beside or near a city as you will be trading most of your goods in a city to earn cash for your town development. If your town is too far away from the city, you will be spending a lot of gasoline for each trade that you make. Gasoline is a very valuable resource in Town Star, you have to use it wisely.
- Placing your town near bodies of water will also give you an advantage when growing crops. Bodies of water with brown coastlines indicates that it is fresh water and good for growing crops. While water with white coastlines indicates salty water - not good for the crops but very advantageous for salt production.
- Also, though it's a bit tempting to place your town beside a BoxCoin Mine (because they look so cool) - It is useless! That mine won't even show up when you're actually in your town. This mine has an exciting future purpose in Town Star (i.e. for mining BoxCoins - the premium in-game currency) but for now it's just a cool looking volcano on the world map spewing out fancy stuff. :)
- Lastly, if you think you made a mistake and want to start over - you can do so by destroying your existing town first. You can then restart from scratch on the same location or maybe settle in a different type of land or location.
- As the game is still in beta, expect some changes in the game after each reset. All updates/changes are announce in Gala's Discord server so don't forget to join their Discord server too. (A Discord invite link is available at the Gala site for registered Gala members).
In summary, and as a personal choice, I have decided to continue playing this game. I'm very interested to see the future of this blockchain game once all the necessary elements have been put together in place. I'm excited to see the development of the game, the opportunity to earn more Gala coins, and maybe a chance to own a farmbot someday so I can mine BoxCoins in the future.as well.
To be honest, even without the rewards, I will still play this game because I find it very interesting and engaging - a fun way for me to pass the time. I've learned that Town Star is just the first of the many games that Gala plans to developed and I'm looking forward to see what kind of games that I will be seeing soon in those "Coming Soon" boxes. :)
That's it for this post. (",)
Thank you for reading this far. God bless!
Note: In case you missed it, a separate step-by-step "How to Start" guide can be read here. And If you don't have a Town Star / Gala Game Account yet, you're welcome to register using the link below (it's my invite/referral link), thanks:
